RECYCLING NEWS

IN 2007 the UK government  took on board the European Union legilsation that is currently known as the WEEE directive. This was initially aimed  the general public consumers but quickly expanded to cover the full business spectrum.

It transpired that over time the shift would take place in that alll emphasis would be takenn from the general public and then attached to the treatment and diposal of these elctronic items. These would come mainly from offices and business places with the onus to be placed on businesses to cover all costings.

There is now an acute awareness of a companies’ obligations to aquire an ethical and responsible end of life solution when diposing of old IT equipment. As part of a company goal being to achieve ISO status, choosing the correct IT & Communications recovery service is key to obtaining the due diligence proficiency.

Never to stand still for a minute, the WEEE directive as we know it will transform in 2012.

HOW will this happen ?

This will happen due to a landslide vote in the EU Parliament voting for change in legislation in January 2012.

Why are they making channges to the WEEE directive ?

They are making changes due to non-ethical recyclers who have taken WEEE and exported it in it’s raw format. Non treated EEE is being shipped to developing countries. This means units that were taken f0r recycling but were never refurbished or recycled just carted onto a container and shipped.

Figures show that fifty three million tonnes were collected but only eighteen per cent actually recycled responsibly.

Greenpeace and other major organisations outlined that this was nothing less than a man made disaster culminating in the illnesses suffered in developing countries due to the unorthodox treatment of UK waste by children and the poor.

OUR WASTE IS BUILDING FOREIGN BLACK MARKET ECONOMY

With every 1 million mobile phones we are handing over 24 kg of gold and 250 kg of silver which is building foreign economies from the ground up through organised gangs and street soldiers stripping out the base metals for profit.

THE KEY TO SOLVING THIS PROBLEM IS REUSE

The African continent in itself only has two recycling schemes which are not competent enough to solve their own end of life problems. This means that the constant stream of e-waste that is pouring into Africa (Nigeria, Ghana and others) has no possible outlet for solving its own man made disaster. Running like a stream into a river the waste will become toxic and poison the African landscape destroying everything in its path?

What are the main changes in the WEEE directive 2012?

The main expected clampdown if accepted is likely to be closer targetting by border officials attempting to close the net on illegal e-waste traders. This is all dependent on what level the UK government decides is a reasonable motion to pass. There will be different emphasis put on certain areas but they must maintain a steady flow of processed waste leaving the UK or would potentially end up causing more national problems than it solves.

Only time will tell how these changes affect businesses and recyclers but it is to what degree the UK government decides to implement these which will be the most contributing factor.

Following on from a computer recycling nightmare covered by the daily mail in 2008 where they uncovered a smouldering pot of human degredation and toxic waste the likes the world had never seen before.

Beaches littered with computer hardware on open fires surrounded by children.

src. src. Daily Mail

Basically the story ran about how NHS hard drives had been sent without being wiped into the West African country of Ghana into the hands of criminal gangs.

Many of the UK recycling companies offering services are either not accredited to handle waste or their recycling techniques are unethical.

It was an excellent story and outlined the huge dangers in companies and public sector using cheap or questionable companies to provide some form of "computer recycling".

Well at Recycling News we wanted to see if there was any other side of the story or if indeed certain sectors of the NHS had taken precautions to prevent catastrophies like this happening again.

src. Daily Mail

It has taken a long time to get a real picture of how they have gone about minimising future risk and put into practice firm procedures for ITAD ( I.T Asset Disposal).

The NHS has made huge repairs to it's programs through knowledge and advice from trusted recyclers and WEEE consultants.

They have looked to use companies based on their merits and data security levels.

NHS procurement officers have secured contracts with leading IT & Communications asset recovery service companies. Using cutting edge data security measures and internationally accredited recycling companies they have allowed themselves the comfort that not only will their PC hardware be recycled ethically but their confidential data remains confidential.

We say congratulations to the NHS for their hard work in reinstating themselves as a leader in corporate social responsibility & data security awareness.

When your company is looking to recycle their old handsets it may be worth taking a minute to think about what might be on those devices in terms of data. Any reputable company will use checkmend which is a method to check all IMEI numbers against Police logged stolen files.

See video below for examples of this.

You should ask your provider if they use checkmend and also what procedures are in place for ensuring data is taken off the handsets.